From the introduction:
None of you are strangers to adversity. You’re all veterans of adventure to some degree—not yet legendary heroes of myth whose names are whispered throughout the galaxy, but far from novices taking their first few steps into a wider world. However, like the rest of the galaxy, none of you have dealt with such a wide-reaching catastrophe as the Drift Crisis. Several months have passed since the Drift Crash began the upheaval, and speculation has run rampant on infospheres throughout the Pact Worlds and Veskarium about its possible causes and remedies. Will answers ever emerge? Can the Drift be restored to what it once was? Or are these throttled Drift travel times and constant interruptions in communications and shipping the new normal for every sapient being that relies on this form of faster-than-light travel?